Everyone’s looking for the „rules“ of getting published. I try to share some wisdom on my blog, but who am I kidding? There are no rules. However, here are some guidelines (in quote form!) for aspiring writers…

10 Great Writing Tips, in Quotes:

1. What works for other writers doesn’t have to work for you. It’s okay to make your own rules. And, what works for other writers often won’t work for you so it’s best not to compare your writing or your style to anyone else.

„Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle“ — Jon Acuff

2. You don’t have to write every day. In fact, it’s perfectly okay to avoid burn out and take a day off. It doesn’t mean you’re not a writer.

„Hard scheduling rules — write every day! work on research for one hour each morning! exercise 10 hours a week! — deployed in isolation will lead to…

OMG!! This have been prettygruelingweekssincethe beginning of December!

Not yetfully recovered fromNaNoWriMo, I startedwith the major project of moving –andnot evenmy own place, butwith the office! It felt likesix weeks of packing crates and sorting stuff, working through piles of file foldersof the past, separating utilitiesfromnecessities – yet,still managing to smugglethis or thatcompletelyunnecessary(butbeloved!) thing intothe boxes, against allannouncements… A„garage-sale“ (which turned out to be a house-plus–office-sale andtook 4 days) had tobe done,the repeated checkthatnocurrent projects werejustburningsomewhere, while smallerand mediumdisasters startedloomingat the new office…

Now, that´s it! This wasthesuper long,insanelystressfulandverycreative november.Andwhat can I say: YAY! I made it! 😀

To behonest, Ihadmy doubtswhether I wasreally ableto work consistentlyanddeterminedtowards the wordcount of 50k.In private –I know you´ll guard it –I have arather large, viciousweaker self. And ifthat onestands up against my best intentions? She is able ofpulling meout ofmy motivationand ignorethetaskthat liesbefore me…Yes,I´m a galoot, I know! But whatcan I do?I am too weak for my weaker self 🙂

Not even two weeks until NaNo gets started. I´ve tried to prepare myself for that writing adventure as best I could. Though, I´m sure, not everybody would see it as reasonable to spend their time with such preparations:

I´ve done the internet research. And you´re smart if you say „Research? Well, that´s never wasted time. `Cause after all you´re not just writing a little essay about „how I spent my vacation“… (oh, wait! I´m not at all grousing about vacation themes! No! It´s just… as with the 728 photos you´ve shot: no one is interested in it!) Though, my personal problem here is: I get lost in the internet, much too easily! And thus, in no time, a sunday afternoon has gone…

It was then, somewhere down the road, that I noticed a sudden nervous tension in my fandom, which has been very vivid then and had freshly written fanfic tumbling out of my author-colleagues´quills on an almost daily level. But all at once some writers who were well known for regular updates disappeared from my screen and others offered lame apologies that there wouldn´t be an update to be expected for the whole next month; like: „you know… NaNoWriMo!!“

There are times when my muse and I are just best friends! That is, when I give her the space she demands (and of course she tends to savor it to the fullest!) and as long as I allow her to engage on the mad parts of her creativity every now and then (my muse has been born as my Inner-Mord-Sith; so she loves all the different kinds of tortures …)

And this already puts it in a nutshell … 4 years ago I started writing; a more haphazardly decision then; and under complicating conditions: in English!!!

I´m talking about fanfiction for LotS (Legend of the Seeker), which is a genre I didn´t even know it exists 5years ago! (Okay, I have to admit that this doesn´t cast a very positive light on my age… But, to defend myself: fanfiction is still an underestimated genre in Germany or german speaking countries. Though, there are so many awesome writers there… And even those who do not reach the same level of awesomeness as the best do, they are with so much passion and heart into their writing that reading their work is mostly real fun!)